Our current community group study has me excavating the depths of my heart and taking a thorough inventory of my sin patterns and their effect on my life. It’s a dark and lonely road. I am learning how easily I gloss over, legitimize, or even...
I so vividly remember the quiet, dark room where I lay holding my second child. It was only a couple of hours after she was born, my husband was sleeping on the hospital chair next to me, and for awhile now there had been no...
1 O Lord, I have come to you for protection; don’t let me be disgraced. 2 Save me and rescue me, for you do what is right. Turn your ear to listen to me, and set me free. 3 Be my rock of safety where I can always hide. Give the order to...
1 These are the last words of David: “David, the son of Jesse, speaks— David, the man who was raised up so high, David, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. 2 “The Spirit of the Lord speaks through me; his words are upon...
2 Samuel 24 brings tension between our understanding of judgment and God’s perfect union of justice and mercy. God encourages David to take a census of the people, and although David’s advisors try to convince him otherwise, David follows through and tallies the people. The...
All I could think is “for once, I just want to hear some really good news.” ...
1 Then King David turned to the entire assembly and said, “My son Solomon, whom God has clearly chosen as the next king of Israel, is still young and inexperienced. The work ahead of him is enormous, for the Temple he will build is not...
Satan is an unforgiving and dominating master, and the consequences and darkness of sin had corroded humanity - those made in God's image- since the beginning of time. We were slaves to our own sinful natures; our cravings and desires were the very things destroying...
1 As the time of King David’s death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon: 2 “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. 3 Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all...
1 So Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David, his father. The Temple was built on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the site that David had selected. 2 The...
Absalom was known as the most cunning, handsome, and ambitious of David’s sons. The Bible describes him in 2 Samuel 14:25 saying, “Now Absalom was praised as the most handsome man in all Israel. He was flawless from head to foot.” I don’t know about...
1 Then David said, “This will be the location for the Temple of the Lord God and the place of the altar for Israel’s burnt offerings!”...
11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “Whenever you take a census of the people of Israel, each man who is counted must pay a ransom for himself to the Lord. Then no plague will strike the people as you count them. 13 Each...
In 2 Samuel 15, the consequences of David’s sin are being revealed in the rebellion of his son, Absalom. Through his own sin, David helped create the moment and opportunity of Absalom’s rebellion. Upon hearing of this rebellion, David flees Jerusalem but shows his trust...
My husband’s grandmother was someone whom I consider a giant in the faith. The thing I think was her greatest example of faith was how she had God’s word hidden in her heart, always on her tongue, and constantly pouring out of her fingers through...
1 Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Take a census of all the people of Israel—from Beersheba in the south to Dan...
At Christmas we rejoice in the birth of a child. Though much-awaited through the volumes of history, this child slipped into the world with little fanfare and even fewer resources. Illegitimately born into the care of a teenage mother, he was without status, power, or...
1 Once again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the Lord told him. 2 So the king said to Joab and the commanders of...
1 We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer. 2 People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. 3 Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. 4 The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even...
2 Samuel 12 begins, “then the Lord sent Nathan to David.” Many of us can think back to those specific moments in our life when we came face-to-face with a God-sent friend. For most of us, those moments have only happened once or twice, but...
1 David now mustered the men who were with him and appointed generals and captains to lead them. 2 He sent the troops out in three groups, placing one group under Joab, one under Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and one under Ittai, the...
Does Satan have any access to our lives and/or power over us? You hear people say, “Satan is attacking me…” or “The Enemy knows my weakness…” But are these concepts biblical? Does Christ’s death and resurrection nullify Satan’s power over believers?...
1 After this, Absalom bought a chariot and horses, and he hired fifty bodyguards to run ahead of him. 2 He got up early every morning and went out to the gate of the city. When people brought a case to the king for judgment,...
God sends Nathan to speak truth into David’s life and cast light on the darkness of David’s hidden sin. Nathan risks his life to confront King David’s sin, knowing that obeying the one true King is more important than his own fears or desires. ...
While taking a power nap one afternoon last week, I turned on the television to drown out the barking dog next door. As I was waking up, I heard the word “God” mentioned in the mindless fluff that was playing and it caught my attention. The...